Guidelines To The Authors

About the Journal

(Print ISSN: 0971-1929. Electronic ISSN:0974-4568): JFMT is a peer-reviewed medical journal published bi-annually (Jan to June and July-December) by the Editor as an official publication of Medicolegal Society.

Scope of the Journal:

The Journal covers medico-legal and clinical aspects including the ethical and social issues related to the subject specialty of Forensic Medicine, Forensic Pathology, Forensic Radiology, Emergency Medicine, Forensic Psychiatry, Toxicology and allied specialities. The Journal promotes dissemination of original research work for larger interest.

Indexing:

The Journal is indexed and abstracted with Scopus, Embase, Excerpta Medica, Google Scholar, CNKI Scholar, EBSCO Discovery, Indian Citation Index etc. Details are available online at: https://indianjournals.com/ijor.aspx?target=ijor:jfmt&type=home

Preparation of Manuscripts

Manuscripts must be prepared in accordance with “Uniform requirements for Manuscripts submitted to Biomedical Journals referring standard guidelines provided by ICMJE (International Committee of Medical Journal Editor) and ICMR (Indian Council of Medical Research)”.

Types of manuscript

1-Original Article: These include original research articles comprising of cross-sectional or longitudinal studies, cohort study, randomized controlled trials, outcome studies, case-control series and surveys with high response rate. The text of original articles amounting to up to 3000 words (excluding abstract, references and tables) should be divided into sections with the headings Abstract, Key-words, Introduction, Material and Methods, Results, Discussion, Conclusions, Acknowledgements, Ethical Approval, Conflict of Interest Statement, Funding, References, Tables and Figure with legends.

• Abstract: An abstract (structured or unstructured) of no more than 250 words
• Key Words: 3 to 5 separated by semicolon (;)
• Introduction: Brief and specify the purpose and rationale of the study.
• Material & Methods: It should include and describe study design, selection criteria for choosing participants, tool used, validation of tool, technical information, Institutional Ethics Committee approval etc.
• Statistical Methods used for analysing data should be described in detail.
• Results: Present your results in a logical sequence in the text, suitably supported with tables, and illustrations. Avoid duplication of results in the text and tables or illustrations, graphs etc. 2x2 table should be avoided. Extra or supplementary materials and technical details can be placed in an appendix where it will be accessible but will not interrupt the flow of the text.
• Discussion: Include summary of key findings (primary outcome measures, secondary outcome measures, results as they relate to the objectives andhypothesis)
• Conclusion / Recommendations

2-Review Articles: It is expected that these articles would be written by authors who have done substantial work on the subject or are considered experts in the field. Plagiarism must be avoided. Authors submitting review article should include a section describing the methods used for locating, selecting, extracting and synthesizing data. Review article must be prepared after analysis of need and critical review of available literatures, keeping in mind relevance and uniqueness.

3-Case Reports: Should include interesting and rare / unique cases.

Each figure/ picture should be submitted in .jpeg format and must be labelled. Similar for case series.

4-Other Categories: Editorial, Guest Editorial, short communication etc are solicited by the discretion of editor.

References:

As per standard guidelines (NLM Citation Style refers to the citation style from the National Library of Medicine and used by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) http://www.icmie.orghttp://www.nlm.nih.gov/bsd/uniform_requirements.html)

1. Standard Journal Article: Menten P, Jeunemaitre X, de Wardener HE, MacGregor GA. Links between dietary salt intake, renal salt handling, blood pressure, and cardiovascular diseases. Physiol Rev. 2005 Apr; 85(2):679-715. (in case of more than 6 authors, use “et al”)

2. Books With Editors: Ryan KJ, Ray CG, Sherris JC, editors. Sherris medical microbiology. 5th ed. New York (NY): McGraw-Hill Medical; 2010.

3. Chapter in a book: Meltzer PS, Kallioniemi A, Trent JM, Chromosome alterations in human solid tumors. In: Vogelstein B, Kinzler KW, editors. The genetic basis of human cancer. New York: McGraw-Hill 2002.p. 93-113.

Some other important considerations for the contributors

Authorship:

It must be based on icjme.org and icmr.nic.in guidelines and all contributors shall strictly adhere to these. The authors are expected to give a certificate detailing each one’s contribution to the manuscript. The order of authorship cannot be changed once the manuscript is accepted for publication. Acknowledgements, if any should be mentioned at the end of the article (before the References).

Funding:

JFMT requires all authors to acknowledge their funding in a consistent fashion under a separate heading. If no funding was received then the author should state: “This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors”.

Conflict of Intereststatement:

All authors must declare and submit signed letter of conflict of interest (COI)statement that they have no COI with the publication of the manuscript or an Institution or a product that is mentioned in the article. Declaration must include that the article has not been published or submitted to any other Journal or similar platform.

Research and Publication Ethics:

Medical research involving human subjects must be conducted according to the World Medical Association Declaration of Helsinki. Adherence to ICMJE and ICMR guidelines is mandatory. Approval of Institutional Ethics Committee or Institutional Review Board is mandatory for original research work. For case report, case series, review article, short communication etc. intimation to Institutional Ethics Committee or Institutional Review Board shall suffice the purpose. A statement with regards to same must be included the “Materials and Methods” section of the article. Voluntariness, consent, protection of rights of participants, anonymity etc. is completely and collectively responsibility of the authors. Plagiarism shall be viewed seriously. ICMR guidelines (ICMR POLICY ON RESEARCH INTEGRITY AND PUBLICATION ETHICS, 2019) shall be taken into the consideration before submitting the article for publication.

You can submit your paper to: indianjournals.com with a copy of complete script to: editor. jfmt@gmail.com

Note: For all matters including acceptance, rejection, withdrawal, retraction, manuscript processing fee (etc.) of an article at any stage, final discretion shall lie with Editor-In-Chief and Editorial Board.